Harry Potter and the Love of the Dragon

*~*~*~*~*

The next few weeks passed in much the same routine. The Gryffindors had to struggle through an abundance of classes that they were forced to share with the dreaded Slytherins; Harry's included Potions, as usual, History of Magic and Advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts. Hermione, it seemed, had stuck to her promise never to bring up the subject of Harry's sexuality again but had appeared to be sorely tempted to mention something. She had a habit of catching him whenever he checked out another guy.

*~*~*

"Harry, Quidditch games start soon," Ron ran into the Common Room, panting. He handed Harry a note that he seemed to have torn from the notice board in the Entrance Hall.

Harry skimmed the list quickly. Gryffindor's first game was a few weeks away yet, which left them plenty of time to practice. "I'll call a practice for tomorrow evening then. We need to discuss tactics for the first match."

That night, as usual, Harry found himself unable to sleep. He climbed out of bed and pulled some jeans on over the boxers he had been wearing, and felt strangely compelled to make a late night visit to the Astronomy Tower. As Harry neared the room he was headed for, shivering in the cold night air, he began to miss the Marauders' Map that was buried at the bottom of his trunk back in Gryffindor Tower as there was still a danger that Filch would catch him even wearing his father's Invisibility Cloak. He entered the small room at the top of the tower, slipped off the cloak and stood in front of the large window, watching a Muggle plane flash across the clear night sky.

"Potter," a voice drawled from behind him. Harry spun around and his eyes fixed on those of another boy. His breath caught in his throat and the memory of the dream from his birthday came flooding back to him with all the gaps filled in.

"Malfoy? What are you doing here?" The other boy stood slowly and both pairs of eyes checked out the other presence as if seeing each other for the first time. Harry's heart skipped a beat and he began to form a vague plan of running off and feeding himself to the Giant Squid. Malfoy, however, approached Harry slowly and hesitated before leaning in and attaching his mouth to the other boy's. Harry froze momentarily before leaning into the kiss and wrapping his arms around his partner, pulling the blond further towards him. Draco responded by tangling his own hands in Harry's hair and the two lost themselves in the moment that both young men wanted to be caught in forever. Yet the inevitable happened and the two were forced to break apart taking in huge gulps of air.

I just kissed Malfoy?! Harry marvelled to himself, confused.

"Oh, congratulations Potter. Three cheers for that revelation."

"What?? What revelation? I didn't say anything."

"Yes you did."

"No you didn't."

"Yes you did."

"No I...don't you think I would know if I had said something?"

"Whatever you..." Malfoy gasped as Harry grabbed the front of his robes and pulled him into another, more controlled kiss.

"See you tomorrow," Draco suggested immediately after the moment came to a close, blushing an attractive shade of pink, and promptly left the room, leaving a dazed Harry standing alone, face flushed, in the middle of the floor.

*~*~*~*~*

The following morning, Harry woke earlier than was usual despite the extraordinarily late night from an encore of what he had dubbed 'The Dream'. He showered and dressed quickly and sat in the common room staring into the empty fireplace debating what had happened the night before. He deduced that it would be a while before anyone else emerged from their beauty sleep since it was Sunday morning and this gave him plenty of time to mull over what he might feel for Draco.

"Harry?" Hermione sat heavily on the sofa next to him. "Anyone home?" She waved her hand in front of his face, breaking the good stare he had just got going.

"Hmmm?" He looked at her, startled. He hadn't even noticed her enter the room. "What are you doing up so early?" He glanced at his father's watch fixed around his own left wrist.

"I always get up this early on a Sunday. It's a good time to think over stuff. It's so peaceful in here on a Sunday. Also, staying in bed too long gives me a headache," she shrugged. "Hey, it's the first duelling class today. I hope it goes better than that class we had in second year."

Harry was grateful for the distraction. Hermione was giving him those funny, sympathetic looks again that were becoming more and more frequent and they made him feel extremely uncomfortable. "I'm looking forward to it," he input. "I can finally try out some of those hexes I learnt over the summer."

"I hope I don't have to partner you," she laughed. The couple talked for a while longer waiting to see if Ron would emerge from his slumber anytime soon. This was, however, deemed an unlikely occurrence and the pair made their way down to breakfast.

Hermione and Harry were the only two Gryffindors in the Great Hall, which wasn't surprising considering the early hour. There was a small huddle of third year Ravenclaws and a pair of timid first year Hufflepuffs. Harry helped himself to a plate of waffles and smothered them with maple syrup. Hermione carefully prepared her usual bowl of cereal and banana, and Harry was just pouring them each a glass of orange juice when his attention was drawn to the door. Malfoy glanced over at the Gryffindor table and blushed magenta before retreating to his own deserted table alone. Hermione was chattering away to Harry about the last Transfiguration class and Harry took the opportunity to have a good gawp. He is *hot*, thought Harry without any warning, and he too blushed slightly. He couldn't believe what had happened the night before but he wasn't about to pass up the chance to repeat the performance.

"So, you see, you can transfigure a ferret into an apple but not the other way around."

"Right," Harry input vaguely. He had no idea what Hermione had been talking about for the last few minutes.

*~*~*~*~*

The day passed slowly and Harry found himself looking forward to the duelling club that evening. He, Ron and Hermione had managed to persuade Professor Flitwick to host the meeting, and they were desperate for it to go well. Eventually it was five o'clock and all the sixth and seventh year Gryffindors left their various games of gobstones, wizard's chess and exploding snap to attend the Great Hall. It had been decided that only sixth and seventh years should be involved in the club, as Professor Flitwick was not prepared to risk an encore of the last, unsuccessful duelling club.

"Duelling is a difficult skill to master," Professor Flitwick began. "You must be quick thinking, have perfect timing and superb hand eye coordination to succeed. The idea is to force your opponent to drop their wand, or indispose them such that they are unable to continue with the match. I will choose two of you at random to duel each other. This way I can assess the skills each of you possess." He held a box up to the class and smiled. "The first contestants will be..." Flitwick tapped the box with his wand and two names appeared in the air above. "Finnegan and Crabbe.

Seamus climbed onto the stage and shook hands with Crabbe. He prepared himself into the standard duelling position and bowed at Crabbe who followed suit.

"Go," Flitwick called out loudly. In no time at all, Crabbe's wand was in his opponents grasp. "And the winner is Finnegan!" There were cheers from the all the Gryffindors in the crowd but a number of boos from the Slytherins. Seamus bowed dramatically over and over again as he left the stage, and was hit on the back as he pushed his way through the crowd. Over the next hour, most of the group endured their first duels too. Ron won his duel against Goyle who had resorted to an original, hands-on approached - in his rush to offer Ron a fist sandwich he had abandoned his wand on the floor - and Hermione quickly emerged victorious from her own duel against Hannah Abbot.

"And the final pair is...Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy." Harry paled.

"Good luck Harry," voted Ron. "You can beat that bastard."

Harry however wasn't so confident. He approached the staged and him and Malfoy faced each other solemnly. The enemies bowed and the audience waited with bated breath to see who would cast the first spell.

"Petrificus Totalus," Draco shouted.

"Helado Brumo," Harry bellowed in response. Each one of them easily dodged the other's spell and shot back a new hex.

"Tarantallegra."

"Resbaladiso."

"Torpe indolente"

"Nevada nevasca."

The spells they aimed became more and more lethal and soon there were so many spells flying through the air that the audience could no longer keep track of who cast which hex.

"Expelliarmus," they yelled at the same time. The other spells flying around the air dissipated as a red light shot out of the end of Harry's wand joining in mid-air with the identical light from Draco's wand. Harry nearly shat himself as that night in the graveyard after the Triwizard finale came flooding back to him.

The join between the two beams of light glowed a bright white and grew and grew until, as suddenly as it had appeared, the light exploded and Harry and Draco were throw backwards with as much force as if a troll had hurled them. There was a resounding thump as they hit the ground, out cold.

*~*~*~*~*

Harry woke up in the hospital wing with an incredibly sore spot on the back of his head to the sound of a heated argument going on in the adjacent corridor.

"Why can't we see him?" he heard Hermione ask.

"They both need their rest," Madame Pomfrey insisted. "You can see Harry this evening."

Harry heard his friends grumble angrily and listened to the two sets of footsteps retreat.

"You're awake then boys," commented Madame Pomfrey. Harry sat himself up and immediately fell back onto the pillows, his head pounding.

"What happened?" Malfoy asked.

"I have no idea," she told them. "Professor Dumbledore will be here later on to speak to you about it. Until then, you are to stay in your beds and rest." She rubbed some salve into the bumps on the back of their heads and left the small room. Harry looked around it. They were staying in one of the rooms off from the main infirmary, and there were a couple of empty beds along the opposite wall.

"Do you remember anything Ha...erm, Potter?" Draco asked civilly.

Harry shuddered. "What kind of wand core do you have Malfoy?"

"Dragon's heartstring of course."

"Hmm."

"Well, seriously, what did you expect?"

"I dunno," he said. "It's just...never mind." The vision of his parents' shadows ran through his head once more as they were when they emerged from Voldemort's wand.

Draco went pale and stared at Harry.

"What? Have I got something on my face?" Harry blushed deep scarlet and wiped his mouth.

"No, no, your face looks great!"